SUICIDE BOMBERS
Photos show smiling women enjoying a celebration. The visit of a big
chief was the cause of the celebration. The Tamils, like many, enjoy
lavish spectacles. Rajiv Gandhi was blown up by women. They behaved
like everyone else right up to the moment of detonation.
Suicide bombers are ordinary people. They are low down in the so
called infrastructure of terror. The top levels have operational
budgets and cash transfers. This is also very ordinary.
The Jacobins of 1793 were called terrorists. The so called war on
terrorism does not really have a good definition as to who is actually
a terrorist. Some suicide bombers may do what they do because they fear
torture if they are captured alive. According to Amnesty International
dozens of states routinely torture their citizens. Torture is a form of
terrorism, but there is no war against torture.
Terrorist cells and apocalyptic cults have much in common. The
police should watch them all.
American and Israeli lawyers have gone on record to advocate the use
of torture and strong coercion on prisoners. The British actually did
torture suspected I.R.A. internees. These lawyers, by advocating a
degree of state terrorism, are part of the problem rather than the
solution.
Terror is often used to control workers. Slave labour projects are
still with us. Burma has projects employing slave labour. Many
politicians can get votes by advocating a bit more state terrorism.
Even when they don't need votes as in China the authorities try to gain
popular support by threatening war over Taiwan. Both USA and Britain
sponsor paramilitaries in Columbia as part of the War on Drugs.
India and Pakistan can both employ state terror on their enemies by
using their nuclear weapons. They have become members of a club.
Terror acquires momentum through rhetoric. Terror provokes an equal
and opposite reaction. The reaction may be delayed in time. Leading
people to war is not good.
Past history abounds with people who were once called terrorists who
end up running states or becoming part of the government. If
Michiavelli were around today then bombing one's way to power would be
part of the course, along with the idea of defensive bombing or
pre-emptive bombing.
KOLA CHELA
There is a surbub of Nis in Serbia which takes its name from a
suicide bombing effort which became famous in Serbian history and
mythology. In the early 1800s when Serbia was not yet quite independent
there was a military encounter between Serbian nationalists and Turkish
troops nearby. When it appeared that the Turks would overrun the
Serbian positions the order was given to detonate all of the munitions
and most of the attackers and defenders were killed in a big bang.
There are a handful of skulls cemented into a bit of wall to
commemorate this event. Most of the skulls originally in the monument
had already been stolen by 1989. The Skull Tower is just by a busy bus
intersection. The suburb is not so far from the Nis football stadium.
Later on Serbia and other Balkan countries became full of young men
grieving at the tyranny of occupation and exploitation by foreigners
such as the Turks, the Austrains, and their even worse local allies
such as Albanians and Bosnians or Croats and Hungarians. The economy
was never up to much except for a very small elite which would often
include foreigners such as the British and French in designated zones
called capitulations. Financing local strongmen who were willing to
resort to violence was on any modern military staff college syllabus.
The British had succeeded in most of Asia by arming local militia and
empowering some local merchants to collect revenue on their behalf.
In the late 1800s dynamite was invented and it saw its use in civil
conflict on both sides of the Atlantic. The plot to assasinate Archduke
Franz, heir to the Austrian Empire, involved a suicide bombing as well
as a shooting. [2] The Austrian response to the bombing was the demand
that Serbia dismantle its terrorist infrastructure followed by a
successful invasion.
OKINAWA
During about three months in 1945 the Japanese attacked an American
invasion fleet with thousands of planes whose pilots had volunteered
for a one way trip. These suicide pilots attacked military targets.
They had a ritual drink of wine before setting out on their last
mission. Purity of mind and body was important [1].
During the same year the Americans killed hundreds of thousands of
Japanese in a large scale bombing campaign including the use of nuclear
weapons.
The word 'kamikaze' has acquired a broader meaning since 1945.
Nowadays 'kamikaze' is used to describe taxi drivers and others who
show reckless bahaviour.
Not all kamikaze flyers died. Engine failure and bad weather caused
many pilots to return with the idea of trying again.
SABRES OF PARADISE
A recent TV portrait of civil war leader, Oliver Cromwell, told that
the leader inspired his troops by promising them a place in Heaven
should they die on the battlefield. They went into battle singing the
praise of God, just as the Islamic divisions fought in the wadis and
deserts of the Hijaz a thousand years before.
The pious warriors of the English civil war also terrorized citizens
with market place bombing by long range mortar. The rules of war at
that time permitted the mass murder of citizens of a town that refused
to surrender without a fight. Oliver Cromwell excercised that right (of
mass murder) in Ireland. Anglo-Saxon parliamentary institutions owe
much to Oliver Cromwell.
Many parliamentarians seem too busy organising their own police
states to have time to learn any lessons from history. Some of them
probably want to rewrite history if they can.
WORLD BOMBING ORGANISATION
Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are both CIA agents. Yasser
Arafat is really a deep cover Zionist agent. Everything is run by a
conspiracy of Satanists linked to the 'Skull and Crossbones' Club and
similar upper class drinking establishments world wide. There is
essentially some sort of secret society with rituals and badges and so
on that runs everything. Many people seem to believe all this sort of
stuff. Secret societies have been traditional forms of political and
nationalistic resistance in mant parts of the world. China and Italy
are good examples. Chiang Kai Shek [3] owed his rise to power to his
membership of the 'Green Gang', a secret society dedicated to crime and
also to restoration of the long defunct Ming dynasty. The merger of
organised crime with 'patriotism' has a long history.
In reality there is a cartel of arms manufacturers who bid for
lucrative government contracts to make the best munitions that money
can buy, comissioned by the best politicians that money can buy. These
cartels are lubricated by whatever is the most profitable commodity
that can be traded. The Opium Age of 1820-1900 faded into the Oil Age
of 1900-2005. The new 'Green Gang' is the current Saudi Dynasty. They
dress in the green flag of Islam. There is direct competition for
leadership of the 'Green Gang'. Some people call the rival Al-Qaeda.
RISK TRADING
Besides opium and oil, risk is itself a commodity. Capitalism could
not exist without collaborative insurance. Economists Tobin and
Steiglitz highlight the destructiveness of large scale speculative
movements of capitalism. The profits to be made are a temptation for
people to organise disasters to boost commodity or share prices. This
was done as long ago as the Indian famines of the 1700s.
FEEDBACK LOOP
Terrorism ends with negotiation. Increasing the stakes just gives a
feedback loop where more and more people get killed. The people who
negotiate may not actually be active terrorists. Suicide bombers will
never be negotiators in the conflict in which they participate. Suicide
bombers are usually those who see no hope in negotiations with the
enemy.
Progressive increase of force combined with the closing of channels
for negotiation is a recipe for mass murder. In the case of an
asymmetric war with donkey cart mounted mortars against satellite
guided missiles the negotiation channels are also asymmetric. One side
controls all the TV programs. The other uses hastily assembled and
obscure websites.
Mass murder itself is sometimes seen as a valid economic option.
Governments have made this choice in Germany, Kampuchea, Ruwanda and
the Balkans. The Iraqi Baath party made the choice. Algeria has seen
mass murder during the 1990s. Mass murder is used as a gamble by the
unscrupulous to remain in power. Mass murder may also be used by the
powerless who wish to demonstrate that they are not dead.
ZERO SUM GAME
The success of an attack is measured by the number of deaths and
injuries. Suicide bombing is usually done in the most crowded places
such as buses and street markets. The attack has immediate success for
the agressor, unlike landmine deployment.
Terrorism is often based on resource conflicts. A and B compete for
the right to exploit C. The tribal leaders of A and B may decide to
show their tough stance by killing members of any other group. The
group which ends up creating most fear will end up the winner.
CHILD TERRORISM
Just as politicians go around kissing babies to prove their alliance
to the common people so the advocates of terrorism go on to exploit
children and images of children. Ulster protestants took up the image
of a young boy with clenched fists while the Japanese militarists of
the early twentieth century had a poster of a kid with a rifle and
bayonet superimposed on the crescent shaped map of Japan. Palestinian
shops sold pictures of a baby in a suicide bomber belt. The message is
clear. The ideologues of terror wish to take the conflict to the next
generation. The leaders deliberately show and imply the empowerment of
those who lack negotiation skills. The advertisers hint that the root
problem will be inherited by the young.
THE LONDON BOMBINGS OF JULY THE SEVENTH
Many British were not particularly shocked by the bombings of 7 July
2005. Indeed there were some who wondered why it took so long after the
invasion of Iraq for blood to be shed on the streets of London.
On 7 July four bombs exploded on the London transport system during
the morning rush hour. The bombers targeted trains at Aldwych, Edgeware
Road, and Russel square. A bus was blown up in Tavistock Square, near
to the London University quarter. Over fifty were killed and more than
seven hundred people were injured. Recent revelations indicate that the
bombers drove down from Leeds to Luton, and then boarded a train to
King's Cross in London.
The bombings happened during the meeting of G8 leaders in Scotland.
Tony Blair made a speech saying that the bombers must be defeated by
imposing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Later that Thursday night a woman from the Leeds area informed the
authorities that her son had gone missing. The police followed the lead
and by Tuesday the following week the media announced that three of the
bombers had been identified, and that they were linked to the crime
scene by personal effects found amongst the debris of the explosions.
DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT
The year 2005 saw some of the least democratic elections in recent
British history. One of the major parties was led by a man who echoed
Robert Mugabe in his wish to clear 'illegal settlers' from the fields
of England's green and pleasant land. Tory leader, Michael Howard,
proposed to take Britain out of a European Human Rights convention if
that was necessary to evict gypsies from setting up home on land which
they had acquired by legal purchase. Robert Mugabe's government simply
ordered in bulldozers to trash the squatter communities around
Zimbabwe's urban areas. The Zanu-PF operation 'clean up trash' has its
echoes amongst many British communities. Many middle class people do
not want gypsies in their neighbourhood. A bonfire night parade in
Lewes, Sussex, included the torching of a model of a gypsy caravan.
Micheal Howard, a Cambridge educated lawyer, believes that people
should obey the rules, usually made by parliamentarians such as
himself. Michael Howard is also a great advocate of parliament forcing
judges to impose prison sentences long enough to satisfy those who
kow-tow to the hate filled agenda of the British tabloid press.
Blair's New Labour is a party which concentrated on showing how
nasty a Howard government could be. Michael Howard seemed to cooperate
by throwing away any sympathy he could have got from the rightful claim
that he lost many of his relatives during the Nazi inspired massacre of
East European Jews. Both major parties set their campaign to please
only the owners of property. Those without property were offered only
'rat droppings'.
Recent British parliaments have taken the road towards combining
executive, legislature, and judiciary in a single small group based on
the cabinet and an array of flunkies called political advisors,
management consultants, or even lifestyle gurus.
In case people did not want to vote Tory or Labour they could vote
for Respect, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats or various
anti-foreigner parties such as UKIP or the British National Party.
Respect managed to get its leader, George Galloway, elected. George
Galloway is vilified by the British tabloids. He has been consistent in
his opposition to Western imperialism but he is not necessarily a
supporter of free speech. Like many labour men he prevaricated when
moslems tried to assert political power back in the 1980s by calling
for enforcement of blasphemy laws. A crowd of angry moslems in Bradford
burned a copy of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses.
Some British moslems recognise that the book burning set back their
faith more than 9/11 or 7/7. The only really interesting TV programs to
come out of the election campaign came from mosques and Islamic Centers
where some brave young muslims were willing to confront the jehadis and
the caliphate crowd and talk about the value of voting even in very
miserable circumstances. These programs were even more exciting than
the images if the Prescott punch-up during the 2001 campaign.
My own voting sympathies lie towards support of those who wish for a
cosmopolitan or multi-cultural society. The word 'cosmopolitan' was
used by the Nazis to single out Jews. The Nazi persecution of Jews was
mirrored in the Far East during the Second World War. Tsuji Masanobu
[4] wrote a tract telling Japanese soldiers to give no quarter to
expatriate Chinese living in South East Asia. He said that ethnic
Chinese had no loyalty to the countries in which they lived and so they
were agents of British imperialism. Tsuji echoed the mindset which
equates lack of patriotism with evil and dirt.
The chinese-american historian Iris Chang documented the behaviour
of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) in Nanjing. She compared the
massacres of the chinese to the attempts of the Nazis to annihilate
European Jews. Iris Chang was found dead in her car in late 2004. The
stated cause of death was a self inflicted gunshot wound.
Our country celebrates the heroism of those who helped us to win the
second world war. Chinese sailors crewed ships in the dangerous
Atlantic convoys. Somalis fought for British armies in Burma. Indian
clerks helped to keep armies in the field in the Middle East.
SHANKHILL FISH AND CHIP SHOP BOMBING
The capitalist media claim that the West Yorkshire based suicide
bombers carried out the first such attacks in Europe. The case of
Thomas Begley has not yet been noted. In 1993 there were ten victims of
a bomb carried by a youn g IRA volunteer into a Shankhill Road fish and
chip shop. There was a meeting of a Ulster Loyalist miltia group in the
room above the shop at the time.
The Shankill massacre happened, actually, in October 1993. In the
middle of that month, the IRA issued a statement saying that it
supported what was then known as the Hume/Adams process, and saying
that the process could provide the basis for peace. A week later, a
young IRA volunteer called Thomas Begley carried a bomb into Frizzell's
chip shop on the Shankill Road. When it exploded prematurely, it killed
two members of the Frizzell family and eight other people, including a
seven-year-old girl who was clutching her mother's hand. Begley was
among the dead [5].
Gerry Adams is an elected member of the British parliament. Like
most Sinn Fein politicians he has adopted the stand of abstentionism:
that is to say that although elected he does not take his seat in
Westminster although he draws salary and maintains a political office
in London. Gerry Adams helped to carry the coffin of the young Irish
martyr at his funeral. Ian Paisley, the foremost spokesman for hardline
Ulster protestants was seen to be cheering Tony Blair during recent
parliamentry speeches denouncing terrorism. The community that Ian
Paisley represents has been victim to random acts of terror. These acts
of terror are random because they depend on several events happening
concurrently: the availability of explosives, detonater experts, and
political will to carry out propaganda by deed.
The Shankhill Road bombing was not classified as a suicide bombing
but it seems close to the mark. Former British policeman Stalker has
been interviewed on television about the similarities between IRA
actions and the London bombings. He says the IRA never carried things
like credit cards or other forms of ID when on missions. The bombers
from Leeds apparently did not care.
WHAT EXPLOSIVES DID THE TERRORISTS USE ?
Explosives have generally come from the mining and quarry industry.
The Derbyshire Peak District sees large detonations happening as a
matter of routine in areas such as the Hope Valley and Stoney
Middleton. Such commercial explosives are generally called ANFOL, an
abbreviation for Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil mixture. This is standard
explosive for urban guerillas. There are also wartime explosives such
as RDX and PETN which will be familiar to readers of Frederick Forsyth
novels. These wartime explosives are generally chosen so that
accidental detonation is unlikely. Apparently RDX can withstand hits
from small arms fire without detonation.
The Madrid bombers apparently got their explosives from the black
market which supplied the Spanish mining and quarrying industry. People
sold explosives this way just to avoid taxes and beaurocracy.
The controlled explosions used on the hire cars in Luton which got
linked to the suicide bombers raise questions as to just what the
police were worried about. Was the problem in the detonators, fear of
booby traps, or the type of explosives used? The British police act to
preserve life, but I am sure that they could have found any number of
citizen volunteers willing to risk being blown up by going up to the
cars and driving them to the local police station to help the forensic
team. There are a plenty of ordinary Northern Irish people who have
saved lives by carrying bombs out of pubs when necessary.
The opposite of the suicide bomber is the person who carries the
bomb out of harm. There are many people willing to take these risks.
Low paid security guards are not necessarily volunteers for this sort
of thing.
Fri Jul 15 09:10:53 BST 2005
The police later revealed the explosive as acetone peroxide. Acetone
is well known as the base of Chaim Weizman's claim to Israel. Acetone
peroxide is so unstable that professional explosives people do not
want to touch it.
ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES
Suicide bombing has become associated with Islamic cults in the
popular media. This article tries to show the error of this perception.
The Tamil nationalists who blew up Rajiv Gandhi were Hindus. The idea
of self sacrifice as a means of getting close to a tyrant in an
assassination plot permeates ancient Chinese history. The film 'Hero' is
a long melodrama on this theme. Su-ma Chi'en, a chinese historian
working over two thousand years ago describes an elaborate plot to gain
access to a tyrant. One of the plotters, General Fan, allowed his head
to be cut off so that the other two agents, Chin Wu Yang and Ching Ko,
could deliver the head to the tyrant and secure close audience with
him. In fact the plot failed because at a crucial moment the tyrant's
doctor appeared on the scene and hit Ching Ko with his medicine bag.
A recent British TV quiz show opposed two teams: writers for
'the Lady' a upmarket magazine, and policemen from Hendon College.
Both teams were asked to identify a picture of twin skyscrapers.
Both teams failed. The picture showed the Petronas towers of Kuala
Lumpur. Malaysia is an Islamic country. It has skyscrapers, a
motor industry, and many paying students in British Universities.
Hasty anti-terrorist measures are liable to have dire economic
consequences.
Following the bombings in London there have been one or two well
informed discussions on TV. Ziuddin Sardar, a skeptical moslem has
appeared on TV. A woman cited a Koranic verse, 5:32. 5:32 is about
killing. This and the following verses go on about punishments for
inciting mischief against the religion. The punishments are severe.
Death, crucifixion, mutilation or exile may all be appropriate.
There is also something about saving life. If it's forbidden to
kill with certain exceptions, there are no exceptions when it comes
to saving life. Saving even one life is good. Carrying the bomb out of
the pub will gain merit. The Koran has many negative sounding passages
but there are often some redeeming features.
THE KORAN AND THE WASHINGTON BELTWAY
I have a Koran on the table. The cover says that it comes
complements of the Al Raji Company for Commerce and Industry. The
publisher is the Amana Corporation, of Maryland. The English commentary
and translation is by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. The translator is well versed
in English literature. Unfortunately in my opinion the English literature
base on which the translator draws is part of the culture of the times,
starting with Shakespear. Too many great writers are associated with
nationalism. Many men of letters supported imperialism and empire
building. The Irish poet Yeats praised the Irish uprising of Easter 1916.
There has been much debate in Irish circles about the possible drawbacks
of national myth style literature.
The Al Rajih Company is famous for moving money around the world
outside the common banking system. Like many other channels for money
transfer the company charges less commission than the banks. After 9/11
the authorities said that they would target this sort of money movement
but of course little really happened.
Not everyone has a Koran with parallel translation. However these
books have been around since the beginning of European capitalism. The
Dutch were amongst the earliest. Diplomats who knew the Koran could
well negociate with the enemies of the enemies of the Netherlands,
such as the Turks. In the 1980s getting the Koran into Soviet Asia
was one of the themes of the Cold War.
Ehsan Masood, writing for the Guardian states that the BNP's
Nick Griffin shows more knowledge of the Koran than some muslims.
This seems terrible, and yet there are supposed to be those who recite
the book without knowing its meaning. There are also well documented
threats from moslems to those that call for fresh thinking on the
translations. Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh and Ayeen Hirsi Ali of
the Netherlands have suffered life threatening actions from men who
call themselves devout moslems.
The Koranic schools of Pakistan have been funded by Saudi Arabia,
some of whose rulers were encouraged to use Islam as a weapon in the
cold war. The teaching encourages inward looking thought, and also
conspiracy theories. In the Koran much is made of the transgressions
of the Jews. Few moslems would dare to make a film about an issue
such as the Battle of the Ditches, with dramatisation based on a
contemporary issue such as the ditch and wall systems used to divide
parts of Israel and Palestine. It's quite likely that authorities
world wide would want to suppress such a dramatisation.
Worst of all is a mixture of imperialist ideology and efforts
to reconstruct some sort of caliphate. The British dished out caliphates
to many when they could. To each believer, his caliphate. they said to
the then rulers of Malaya. A religious based on harsh punishments
is straight out of Michiavelli: is it better for a ruler to be loved
or to be feared ? The rhetorical answer is that it is better to be
feared. All of this was known before the Koran.
I have personally looked at Islamic newsgroups back in the early
1990s. I used to contribute to alt.religion.islam and soc.culture.arabic
newsgroups. I have also been on some islamic listservers with automatic
email deliveries. The first lot came from an American university. Many
of the postings asked for funding to support those oppressed by struggle.
Chechenya and Kashmir were both grievences. In the days of the commercial
internet and html tags embedded in the email you can fund jihad with
about three mouse clicks of the mouse. Right back in the 1980s there
were reservations about allowing just anything to be sent in email,
and especially run time scripts. Commercial lobbies ruled. If you
get email with interpreted URL tags, then anyone is three clicks from
sponsoring a terrorist. You just have to get on an email list once.
Of course there are Islamic groups which go for open discussion.
They maybe dating agencies or job search bureaux. There are many moslems
that never go to the mosque. There is a verse in the Koran which says
that there should be no compulsion to partake in any religion. One
of my own photos has appeared on a weblog about beautiful sights of
the Najd.
There is a great difference between open discussion and trading
insults. The downside of the Internet is that hateful speech is
common enough even in mundane discussions where some political
principal is at stake. When it comes to current affairs some Americans
appear to want Iraq and Afghanistan to be reduced to craters excavated
by nuclear bombs.
References.
[1] Albert Axell & Hideki Kase
Kamikaze. Japan's Suicide Gods.
Pearson Education, 2002.
[2] Misha Glennie, The Balkans.
[3] Sterling Seagrave. The Soong Dynasty.
[4] Tsuji Masanubo
Japan's Greatest victory: Britain's Greatest Defeat.
The fall of Singapore, 1942.
[5] http://www.irishexaminer.com/text/story.asp?
j=59753443672&p=597534438z4&n=59753443865
[6] Ehsan Masood. Throw the book at Osama.
Guardian 15/July 2005